CASE REPORT Traumatic Asphyxial Deaths Due to an Uncontrolled Crowd

Abstract: Nine people died of traumatic asphyxia due to an uncon-trolled crowd at a community basketball game in New York City in 1991. We reviewed the circumstances, postmortem findings, and the causes of death. The majority of people had petechiae of the conjunc-tivae and face consistent with chest compression. There were minimal superficial blunt injuries and no fractures or acute intoxications. These deaths are often incorrectly attributed to blunt force injuries, while the cause typically is asphyxia due to chest compression. Key Words: forensic science, forensic pathology, traumatic asphyxia, fatalit